The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to system and methods to manage devices using information handling systems.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Management IHSs are sometimes provided to manage groups of user IHSs to provide what are sometimes referred to as managed IHS environments. For example, a business may provide a managed IHS environment that includes a management IHS coupled to a network (e.g., a local area network (LAN)), and that management IHS may manage user IHSs that are coupled to the network by, for example, providing software updates, detecting hardware issues, ensuring security policies are enforced, and/or a variety of other management tasks known in the art. In managed IHS environments, there are typically multiple devices that may not be managed or even inventoried by the management IHS. For example, in the business-provided managed IHS environment discussed above, a variety of different peripheral devices such as, for example, projectors, televisions, displays, printers, and/or other devices known in the art may not be connected to the network and/or not have the capability to communicate with the management IHS. The inability of the management IHS to manage or even inventory those devices can raise a number of issues.
For example, in the event of a failure or other issue with a peripheral device that is not connected to and/or otherwise cannot communicate with the management IHS, an administrator or other agent of the business must rely on users to report those issues. For example, a user may be required to provide a trouble ticket to an Information Technology (IT) department of the business, and then IT personnel must then respond to the trouble ticket to remedy the issue. As such, there is no immediately visibility of the issue, particularly when users fail to report devices that are experiencing issues. In addition, the need to report a trouble ticket and respond to the reported trouble ticket is associated with down time (or faulty operation) of devices having issues, which can affect the productivity of the business. For example, a business may include projectors and printers that are not connected to the network and/or are otherwise unable to communicate with the management IHS, and a projector may experience a failed lamp or a printer may run out of sufficient toner. The need to wait for a user to report such problems, and the time it takes to response to such a report, can results in an inability to use the projector or printer for a significant amount of time.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide improved systems and methods for managing devices.